lauraodonnell86

You are doing such an awesome job! We've been on Adventure 6 times and it's so great to see your pics of the ship. We were originally scheduled for her in January but our B2B was over the dry dock time so we moved to Jewel. :loudcry: Very sad that we probably won't sail on Adventure from San Juan again. But we are looking forward to Freedom in 2019! Keep up the great review and pics! (y)

Have a great cruise!! We are headed to San Juan on the Jewel in January!

Now I'm hungry!! Sounds delish!

I guess I never knew about breakfast for Diamond! Does it vary from ship to ship on whether or not there is a lounge? I wasn't sure if they had a special area designated for it on every ship.

You would get the balcony discount consistent with whatever C&A level you have at the time of booking.

 

You can call after you reach Diamond to get the higher discount, but your cruise (and any booking perks) will be re-priced to whatever is the current price.

Thanks so much! You are so helpful!

Bob, question for you.

We are Emerald now but have booked for January 2019 when we will be Diamond. Do we only get the Emerald balcony discount since when we booked, we were Emerald? Or should I call back after we hit Diamond (May 2018) and reprice? I honestly wonder if it'll be a better deal because we booked the day that they were released and got a steal of a deal. What's your opinion?

Thanks!!

Loving this live thread! You are doing a great job! I recognize your name from some Periscopes that I follow :) Have a wonderful cruise!

Periscope is like Facebook live, but users can chat with each other while someone is live. Periscope is in the app store, and you must log in with user name from Twitter, since it's their app. I scope from ships all the time, if you want to watch some. @mpoole3

You will definitely double your fun by following @mpoole3!! ;p Nothing but entertaining goodness! LOL :')

After our Segway tour we did walk through the Dolphin encounter area. Most of the other cruisers were gone and the dolphins were just swimming around. They seemed interested in us and we watched each other quite a bit. They didn't seem to be looking for food. For Laura here is a few pictures,

 

 

While I personally wouldn't interact with a captive dolphin exhibit, l couldn't resist taking pictures since I was there.

 

 

Aww those are such good pictures!! They are so sweet and very personable. I know everyone has their views about exhibits like this but they actually go into how they rescued these dolphins who were near death and things such as that. I thought it was pretty neat. Thanks for the pictures Bill!!

We visited Blue Lagoon Island in 2015 and did the swimming with the dolphins. It was a beautiful area and a lot of fun!

You might consider venting your anger at Mother Nature. Royal did not cause the destruction and they are only a small part of the picture. Please consider the poor people who have lost everything and most likely have no ways or means of getting their lives back as they once knew them.

 

We luckily survived the wrath of Irma here in our area of FL but others not so lucky. We are thankful we are not facing months or years of rebuilding our home and our lives. Please be thankful for what you have and just go with the flo. Enjoy your cruise wherever it takes you.

EXACTLY!! I'm glad you guys didn't have any damage from Irma. My grandparents live in Melbourne and luckily they were the same way! Thankful! :)

St Criox, Grenada, and Dominica will be new to me. I will hold out hope for making St Martin as long as I can.

We love St. Croix (want to move there someday) and Grenada. We've only been to Dominica once and it was about 7 years ago if I remember right. We did a river tubing excursion which was very fun! Now, we mainly just take cabs to beaches every day so I need to do some research on beaches there to see what are best. We love all of the islands and would be okay with any of them being switched out. We just love getting away from the yucky Missouri weather in January so we're along for the ride and can roll with the punches!

I'm very happy how this thread has taken off and have found it enjoyable. While the thread is about the ship, I don't see why it can't be about its itineraries. I know people will post in other threads, but I think it would be helpful if people posted here, notifications they got about their upcoming cruises and port itineraries. My cruise is still 200+ days out and still has, as I would expect, St Croix and St Martin on the schedule. I suppose around late March or April I will begin to wonder. Booking excursions for this one will be fun. I ran into that on a smaller basis last week on Majesty.

 

Looking forward to passing the next few months with all of you.

I plan on doing a review of our B2B in January which I assume will have all of the same islands as you are planned to visit. I will definitely link the review here and try to offer any info before that point as well!

I understand your thoughts. However, I believe they are trying to give the islands time to see if they will be able to accept pax. For every person that wants them to go ahead and change now...there is probably another person who would be really upset if they do go ahead and change but then ships from other cruise lines are able to make it there that same week.

 

So while there are many "everyday" decisions that I think RC messes up, I would not want to be in their position right now making these decisions!

 

As the old saying goes..." you are never going to please everyone"!

Couldn't have put it any better myself!!!!!!

Going (hopefully) on Jewel on January 14th out of San Juan for my first ever cruise. I finally booked one and then weather craziness happened. I'm really hoping that by then the port, airport, and our hotel Sharaton Old San Juan will be up and running.

We're on this cruise as well! We were originally booked on Adventure of the Seas but it went to dry dock so landed on Jewel and this will be our first time. Cruised Serenade in 2009 but don't remember it too well! Excited and anxious to hear the all clear for our cruise!

Very excited to cruise on Freedom for the first time in January 2019 out of San Juan! We also turn diamond before sailing so we are thrilled for that as well! We have never been on anything bigger than Voyager class so this class will see very large! We are going on Liberty in May of 2018 so will have a feel for a Freedom class ship. Can't wait!

Love your reviews Bill!

I booked Feb 2019 the day they came out. The price continues to go up, up, & up.

Same for us January 2019. We got a steal the day the itineraries were released! Haven't seen them anywhere close to that price since the day we booked. We'll definitely be doing the same for January of 2020 when they are released in the spring! ;p

So St. Croix and St. Kitts survived Maria w/o enough damage to shut things down? I'm having a difficult time believing this.

This was a post this morning from a real estate company that my husband and I follow in St. Croix.

Posting from the states on behalf of Farchette & Hanley: For all those concerned about Kerri and Chris Hanley... all is well! Spoke with them Wednesday night and they are only having connectivity issues following Hurricane Maria.

Overall, St. Croix luckily weathered well. Not nearly the catastrophic level of damage sustained on St. John and areas of St. Thomas from Hurricane Irma.

Here is the initial damage report they have seen or received info about on St. Croix, as many roads are currently impassable with down trees or power lines. We will update as we receive more info:

- Significant debris in streets of Christiansted and Frederiksted, no collapsed buildings

- Federal courthouse has significant roof damage

- Hospital has water damage but no roof damage

- Sunny isle is okay, maybe a couple of stores blown in with roll down shutters

- GoodHope CountryDay School is intact

- Major grocery stores seem okay

- Airport capable of receiving relief flights ASAP if allowed

- Gallows Bay: multiple roofs missing on businesses

- East End roof damage on 1 out of every 20-30 homes. Some roads impassible due to power lines. Very limited cell / internet.

Following along. Hoping for a safe return for you all!

Got an email that St Thomas was changed to St Kitts.....

 

St Thomas and St John was the only reason I booked this cruise over Mediterranean cruise, now it has been taken away from the trip, from the researches I have done, St Kitts is not known for its beaches (I am a huge blue water, white sands beach fan). Now I will be heading over 2 ports (San Juan, St Kitt) that I think is boring and Labadee that I have been there already...

 

This really disappointed me, I called in and see if we're getting any sort of compensation due to the changes... NO, asked if I can cancel this cruise and book for something else, NO

 

sigh....

You should visit Carambola Beach Club. It's a wonderful blue water, nice sand location! Here is a review I did from our cruise in January and I post a few pics on there. The taxi is pretty cheap to get there!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2455277

I would recommend St. Lucia for zip-lining! We did it a few years ago and were so amazed!! Here is the link for the place we went. It was worth every penny! Check out the reviews on TripAdvisor.

https://adventuretoursstlucia.com/treetop-canopy/

We'll be on the Jewel of The Seas the week of January 21st, and would like to spend a day at the beach. Which Island and what beach????

St Croix

St Martin

Dominica

Barbados

Grenada

We're on this cruise with ya! Here is what were are doing:

St. Croix - Rhythms @ Rainbow Beach

St. Maarten - Pinel Island

Dominica - not sure yet (looking for a good beach!)

Barbados - Boatyard

Grenada - Grand Anse

We've been to all of these and LOVE them! See ya on board!

You are going to have a blast! AOS is our favorite ship! Just a few tips for places that we love in those ports you are going to!

St. Kitts - Carambola Beach Club. They have a wonderful restaurant and great chairs on a beautiful beach. We did quite a bit of snorkeling there and the water was very clear. Taking a taxi to get there is pretty inexpensive.

St. Maarten - Pinel Island. We discovered this perfect location last year! Multiple snorkeling opportunities as well as hiking through the deserted island to see different beaches on each side of the island. You will see wildlife as you walk around the island. Can't recommend it enough!

If you'd like to check out my review from this past January on Adventure, you will find pictures and more information for the 2 locations I talked about above! http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2455277

Enjoy your cruise!!

Oh my goodness, I feel your pain!! We were booked on AOS January 2018 and since she is now going into dry dock, our B2B was cancelled and we had to book on Jewel for a day later. Well....we had already bought our airfare so now we are having to move the flights forward one day. We bought them for $450 each and now they are upper $600-lower $700 and we have to stay with United since that is who we are booked with! :mad: I just keep waiting for the prices to go down! Hoping and praying! We usually pay around $400 to $450. Not sure why they are so high right now?!?!?!? Good luck!!!!